Etymograph

English

infrastructure

Infrastructure comes from French infrastructure, and goes back to structure.

  1. Frenchc. 1600–presentstructure1
  2. Frenchc. 1600–presentinfrastructure2
  3. Englishearliest quotation 2015infrastructure2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, French infrastructure
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English infrastructure
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2015, Tim Carvell et al., Infrastructure: “Infrastructure: It's our roads, bridges, dams, levees, airports, power…”.

Lineage

  1. Frenchc. 1600–presentstructureWiktionary, French infrastructure
  2. Frenchc. 1600–presentinfrastructureWiktionary, English infrastructure
  3. Englishearliest quotation 2015infrastructureWiktionary, English infrastructure. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2015, Tim Carvell et al., Infrastructure: “Infrastructure: It's our roads, bridges, dams, levees, airports, power…”

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Today it means

noun An underlying base or foundation for a building, organization, or system.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “infrastructure”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for French infrastructure. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / French structure / infrastructure